Members of the East End Trades Guild will meet the Hackney and Tower Hamlets mayors on Tuesday 13 March and ask them to commit to their agenda for affordable workspace and a London Living Rent.

The manifesto calls on councils across the capital to:

• Recognise Community Value of small and micro business to boroughs’…

Mayor Philip Glanville invited representatives of Hackney's social enterprise sector to the Town Hall in February to present the results of a consultation with more than 250 SEs to create a Social Enterprise Manifesto for Hackney. 

The manifesto is full of ideas on how Hackney Council can support recognition and development of the sector.  It highlight three strategic aims for the sector locally: promoting awareness & understanding of social enterprise, building…

If the thought of insects makes you crawl read on to learn how they might soon be appearing in a supermarket near you.

The human population is increasing on a daily basis and it doesn't look like it's ever going to slow down. Before very long the problem of feeding all those hungry mouths will become a burden that calls for new ways to provide our daily nutritional requirements. There is a growing band of experts that is looking to the insect world for an answer to our…

Sustainable Hackney – Education for Sustainable Education (EfS) Network -  gave a presentation to the Hackney Primary Headteachers’ January meeting on the urgency of introducing EfS into their schools. 

The presentation was supported at the meeting by Councillor Jon Burke (lead cabinet member for sustainability) who aims to make every Hackney council department function sustainably.…

Recently, we have seen the demise of the outsourcing mogul Carillion under a £1.5bn debt pile with a possible loss of up to 20,000 jobs in the UK. This was followed 2 weeks later by profit warnings of another outsourcing giant, Capita, whose share value plummeted by nearly 50%, wiping £1.5bn of its stock market value. The process of outsourcing public services started under the Thatcher years, but accelerated under the Blair-Brown years with the private/public financing initiatives.…

Hackney Fixers hosted a busy day of fixing on 3^rd February at the Redmond Centre, with over 50 people coming for help with their ailing electrical equipment and clothing.  One happy lady, Elizabeth, asked for “an extra big smile” to be drawn on the fixing log, she was so pleased to have her phone working again!

We realised with a start that this was…

Work could start early in 2018 on Hackney's second rooftop solar farm if a joint bid to the Mayor of London's Community Energy Fund gets the go-ahead.

Dalston-based Wilton Estate Tenants and Residents Association (WETRA), supported by volunteers from Hackney Energy, wants to install 50 kilowatts of solar panels and a set of batteries to store energy for nighttime lighting for communal spaces, stairwells and the community centre.

 …

Hackney Stand up to Racism held a successful and widely supported solidarity evening on 2^nd December that raised over £2000 for Care 4 Calais to continue their work helping refugees rendered homeless after the camp at…

This weekend was welcomed with warm mince pies, mulled wine and handy crafts galore at Hackney City Farm's annual Christmas market. 

Sunday saw Do-it-yourself Christmas workshops, such as wrapping paper decoration for children and big kids. Christmas trees bustled out the shop door, as a…

The ten years from 2005-2014 were designated the UN Decade for Education for Sustainable Development which was led and coordinated in its transformational initiatives by UNESCO.

 “ESD {or Education for Sustainability} empowers learners to take…

Walthamstow Wetlands is Europe's largest urban wetlands, spanning a giant 211 hectares of rare natural habitat, and reopened its doors to the public for the first time on October 20th after 150 years.

(Photography: Clare Taylor)

The project has undergone much redesign and investment to enrich existing habitat whilst…

ClientEarth, an environmental law organisation with a base in Hackney, are keeping after the Government to improve the UK's illegal air quality, launching a third legal challenge.

They are asking for the current inadequate plans to be supplemented to ensure they will achieve what's needed, and are asking for donations to help fight the case.

In addition, they are asking for signatures to a petition to end poisoned playgrounds, after revealing that more than 950 UK schools are…

Do you run an upcycling business? Interested in showcasing your work?

Get in touch with the team about exhibiting for free at the London Upcycling Show on 19th Nov (11am-3pm): emily.morshuis@groundwork.org.uk or 020 8985 1755

Find out more about the show here: …

This year Hackney scored a disappointing 43% in the Good Food for London report, which helps gauge how London is doing to secure a healthy and sustainable food future, with a score less than half of the leading…

Hundreds of tonnes of fruit go to waste every year in London, in public parks and private gardens. Feedback wants to change that in collaboration with Urban Harvest (north London), and continuing the good work of…

The Loop at Pembury is a reuse project on the Pembury Estate launched in September which aims to make quality secondhand furniture available to purchase at super, cheap prices.

• There is a workshop on the estate, where volunteers repair and upcycle donated…